This invention relates to telephone dialing apparatus and more particularly to an abbreviated enhanced dialing apparatus and a method of dialing which is particularly adaptable for cellular telephone systems.
Over the past years great strides have been made in implementing the rapid dialing of telephone numbers. Thus, as one will understand, present modern systems utilize a dialing keypad consisting of a series of momentary operated dialing keys or switches. In conjunction with the keypad the telephone subset may incorporate either touch tone or pulse dialing to enable a rapid dialing sequence. Many telephone subsets also include memory systems whereby one can dial a telephone number by accessing separate memory keys or accessing a memory location via the keypad.
A prior-art search revealed numerous speed-dialing patents of this (memory-system oriented) type. The following is a listing of these patents:
______________________________________ No. Date Title ______________________________________ 4,103,115 7/25/78 MEMORY TONE DIALER 4,277,651 7/7/81 TELEPHONE DIALER 4,473,720 9/25/84 AUTOMATIC DIALER FOR TELE- PHONE NUMBERS WITH PORTABLE MODULE 4,682,357 7/21/87 AUTOMOBILE TELEPHONE APPARATUS 4,723,265 2/2/88 ABBREVIATED DIALER WITH REDUCED KEY OPERATION 4,736,410 4/5/88 TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT FOR REDUCED KEY OPERATION 4,764,951 8/16/88 AUTO DIALER FOR USE WITH TELECOPIERS OR THE LIKE 4,885,762 12/5/89 TELEPHONE APPARATUS ______________________________________
Thus, the prior art is cognizant of various techniques to enable enhanced abbreviated dialing by a telephone user. However, the prior art does not disclose or anticipate anything except memory-system treatments and methods for prestoring telephone numbers under selective user control for later selective recall, whereas the instant invention deals with enhanced abbreviated dialing of non-preprogrammed telephone numbers through the use of traditional system dialing resources, without forethought or prior user action, and with no "permanent" or "preprogrammed" storage.
It is understood, of course, that any technique which enables faster dialing will enhance the operation of telephone systems, but in particular regard to cellular phone systems, the process of dialing is extremely hazardous. There have been many articles written which describe the hazards imposed by dialing on a cellular system while manipulating an automobile, and it is thus obvious that any improvement or enhancement of the dialing procedure will be particularly advantageous and valuable in connection with cellular phones.
The apparatus and methods to be described enable abbreviated and enhanced dialing of many telephone numbers, reducing the number of required key actuations by the user according to the format of the telephone number.
The method and apparatus depend upon particular digits of the telephone number being the same and being repetitive. In this manner, one can dial certain telephone numbers rapidly utilizing the system to be described. The principle feature of the present invention is that successively repeated digits are keyed in by the dialing user one time only. For example, an existing phone number may end with the digit zero repeating four times as for example "0000," and in a conventional dialing procedure the key indicative of zero would be actuated a commensurate number of times in succession (four in the above example).
As one can understand, such multiple actuations may result in many errors, not to mention additional wear and tear on the keypad assembly associated with the telephone. Thus, this invention has uniform and characteristic advantages in the case of telephone numbers which finish or end in the particular digit repeated several times, since it eliminates the requirement of a user having to repeatedly actuate the same digit key. In regard to one aspect of this invention, the user will actuate the digit key only once upon reaching the repetitive digit, after which the system will automatically repeat dial the repetitive digit as many times as necessary to complete a valid telephone number.
As one can understand, the main object of the invention is to advantageously utilize the characteristics of the many telephone numbers having a single digit repeated one or more times, as both a finishing digit or elsewhere in the telephone number. This phenomenon is especially prevalent with the digit zero, and many important telephone numbers such as those for corporations, law firms and other businesses end in a number of zeros. Some examples of this would be "1000," "8800," "0000," and so on. Apart from this, certain other telephone numbers end in repeated non-zero digits such as "5555," "7666," and so on. Numerous additional examples are readily available by accessing conventional telephone directories.
Thus, this feature of the instant invention will enable a user to automatically dial these successively repeating digits by keying in the digit only once. For example, in a phone number ending with the digit "5" repeating four times, a conventional dialing procedure would call for the "5" digit key to be activated four times in succession. However, in the invention the user will need only activate the number "5" digit key once, and then further indicate that it is a repeat digit. As will be explained, this operation can be implemented in a conventional system by a prescribed actuation procedure of the repeat digit key, or unconventionally by means of separate keys such as a finish zero key and a finish final digit key. In the case of phone numbers ending with repetitive zeros, the user will merely actuate a finish zero key to cause the completion of the number with zeroes. For numbers ending in repetitive digits other than zero, the user will first access the repetitive digit key once, then actuate the finish digit key to complete the number with copies of the repetitive digit.
Alternatively, in a store & forward system (including most cellular systems), actuation of the SEND key could automatically cause the number to be completed in either form; by filling in the finishing digits either with zeros or with the final digit keyed-in, depending upon which method of the invention is utilized. As will be explained, upon the user activating the SEND key, the system will recognize the last digit entered, and further recognize that in order to constitute a valid telephone number, additional digits must be added to those already keyed. The system of the invention would then proceed to transmit the manually dialed digits over the cellular network, afterward automatically filling in the requisite repetitive digit the required number of times to create a valid telephone number.
As one will readily understand from the following descriptions, it is a main feature of the instant invention to enable a user to perform abbreviated dialing of any successive repetitive digits associated with a telephone number. In this manner both the cellular users and other telephone users will be able to perform dialing more rapidly. It is also indicated here that the abbreviated dialing system to be described can be utilized in any typical telephone system, whether touch-tone, rotary, or pulse.